The Pharisees who listened to the Lord were lovers of money and tried to reconcile their love of riches and of God, whom they pretended to serve. For this reason, they mocked Jesus. Today too, men sometimes try to ridicule total service to God and detachment from material goods, because - like the Pharisees - not only are they not willing to put it into practice, but they do not even conceive that others can have this generosity: they think, perhaps, that there may be hidden interests in those who have truly chosen, in the midst of the world or outside of it, Christ as their only Lord
Jesus exposes the falsehood of that apparent goodness of the Pharisees: "You," he says to them, "make yourselves out to be righteous before men, but God knows your hearts; for that which seems lofty before men is abominable before God. The Lord points out with a very strong word - abominable - the conduct of those men lacking unity of life who, with the appearance of being faithful servants of God, were very far from Him, as was reflected in their works: they like to walk around dressed in long tunics and long for the greetings in the squares, the first seats in the synagogues and the first places in the banquets, and they devour the houses of widows under the pretext of long prayers.... In reality, they loved God little or nothing; they loved themselves.
God knows your hearts. These words of the Lord should fill us with consolation, while at the same time they will lead us to rectify our intention to reject the movements of vanity and vainglory, so that our whole life may be oriented to the glory of God. Pleasing the Lord must be the great goal of all our actions. Pope John Paul I, when he was still Patriarch of Venice, wrote this little story, full of teachings. At the entrance to the kitchen the dogs were lying down. John, the cook, killed a calf and threw the entrails into the courtyard. The dogs ate them, and said: "He is a good cook, he cooks very well".
A short time later, John peeled the peas and onions, and threw the offal into the yard. The dogs threw themselves on them, but twisting their snouts the other way they said, "The cook is spoiled, he is no longer worth anything."
John, however, was not in the least moved by this judgment, and said, "It is the master who has to eat and appreciate my meals, not the dogs. It is enough for me to be appreciated by my master ". If we act with God in mind, we should care little or nothing if men do not understand or if they criticize him. It is God whom we want to serve in the first place and above all things. Then it turns out that this love with works for God is, at the same time, the greatest task that we can carry out in favor of our human brothers and sisters.
Our Blessed Mother Mary will teach us how to straighten out our days and hours so that our life will be a true service to God. "Never lose sight of the supernatural point of view. -Rectify your intention, as one rectifies the course of a ship on the high seas: looking at the star, looking at Mary. And you will always be sure to reach port "